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Blog Post from June 10, 2018

Individuality Is A Job

Is uniqueness something natural for us, or does it take work?


It’s easy to hold weird, unusual ideas. Most people have a few pass through their minds several times a day. It’s a lot harder to take those ideas and make them an everyday, workable part of our identities.

Anyone can watch shows about rebellious punk rockers. About quiet hackers sabotaging the system, or antiheroes indulging their whims. We see them, and their ideas, all the time. Thinking we’re individuals answering to our own ideas and fighting for them is the easy part. They’re only thoughts after all. Thoughts or words posted on some personal blog.

I think individuality is more than having different ideas. More than buying different things, or saying the same things in different ways. Real individuality is something that takes time, effort, and commitment. Time to figure out what sets us apart. Effort to focus on it, even if it’s likely on our own. Commitment to keep trying even after failing over and over without help.

Lots of media focuses on people doing all these thing. It makes it easier to feel like I’m being individual by watching them. It took away my desire to build on my own individuality, which is part of why I choose not to watch them anymore. Why I keep focusing on what makes me different.

Even if those efforts are only reading different books. Or sharing some thoughts and words on a personal blog.